When beef cattle is transported from the farms to the slaughter plants, a large number of bruises and injuries develop in the animals due to the fact that they hit or bump against the cage railings and/or the edges of the cage guillotine doors. These bruises and other injuries are detrimental to the quality of the product and, therefore, they have to be removed from the carcass through a process of removal, thus generating an economic loss.
Due to this problem that is widely known in the art, a number of potential solutions have been put forward in order to reduce or prevent the development of bruises and other injuries during beef cattle transportation.
One of the protection systems which is known in the market and is commercially available comprises placing rollers on a vertical shaft parallel to the guides of the guillotine door, both on the outer side of the cage and in front of the guides, in such a way as to prevent the animals from bumping against the guide metal edges. Due to the fact that these rollers are mounted on a shaft that is fixed in the cage, the rollers cannot be placed in the inner side thereof, as they would take up a volume inside the cage, and, since the animals would be inside the cage, and the cage would be moving, the animals could bump against such rollers, which could lead to bruising. In addition, although this roller system reduces to some extent the injuries animals might suffer during loading operations, such system provides no protection during unloading operations. This is a major shortcoming of this system, since protection is even more necessary during the unloading operation, due to the fact that, when animals are loaded, they are arranged in a row and are led towards the door of the loading platform, while, when animals are unloaded, they are grouped in an unarranged way at the door, which causes a greater number of bumps and consequently a greater number of bruises and injuries.
Apart from this, since the rollers have to be located near the guides, their diameters have to be small, but since at the same time they must bear great impacts, they should also be made of a solid and rigid material. As a result of this, the rollers have a small diameter and they are made of rigid material, which provides little protection against bruising given the fact that, if animals impact or bump against them, bruises and injuries will develop on their body due to the rollers' rigidity and diameter.
Some alternative systems of livestock transportation are known in the art. One of these systems is the one disclosed in French patent application FR2920715, Cosnet Societe Par Actions Simplifiee, 13 Mar. 2009, relating to a trailer for carrying livestock from one farm to another, where there is a loading platform. Said trailer comprises a system of railings and a ramp that can be unfolded, one on each side of the cage door, and a pivoting ramp. For the loading and unloading operations, the railings are opened and unfolded, in order to guide the animals into the cage, and the ramp is folded upwards, acting as the trailer's door. This system is not applicable to the type of operation that is a standard in the transport of beef cattle to slaughter plants, since the farms and plants have loading platforms with their own railings. In addition, this trailer needs to have a low floor so that the ramp slope is not too steep, and therefore the trailer has medium-sized wheels, which limits the total gross weight that can be carried.
Another alternative system for transporting livestock is the one disclosed in Chinese patent application CN 102303558 (A), Inst Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine Shandong Aas, 4 Jan. 2012. Said patent application discloses a system to reduce injuries and/or bruises caused to animals during transport, by isolating each animal in an individual cage. Although this system is effective for preventing animals from bumping against each other during transport, it is not economically feasible, due to the fact that the volume taken up by the individual cages means that the loaded vehicle can carry many fewer animals than in conventional cages. For this reason, the transport cost per livestock unit is high. In addition, this system does not protect animals from impacts against the railings.
Therefore, a protection system is needed for protecting livestock during loading, transport, and unloading operations, reducing or preventing the development of injuries or bruises in the animals during such operations, and not having a negative impact on the effectiveness thereof.